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The 2017 spring semester began this week for William Penn University students, but a small, contained chemical fire in the school's cafeteria kitchen gave an awkward start to the year.

No one was injured in the fire that sparked right before Sunday's dinner session on Sunday, January 8th. The kitchen sustained a limited amount of damage according to school officials. The fire took place near the kitchen's elevator located on the third floor of the Dana Atkins Memorial Student Union Building.

The kitchen and the cafeteria are located on the third floor of the Union. William Penn Vice President of Operations Greg Hafner says the fire started from a chemical reaction in a mop bucket. The chemical reaction caused the bucket to start smoldering and caught two mops on fire.

Hafner said, "when they were smoldering, the kitchen crew called out security, security went up and when our security officer Mike went to get the fire extinguisher they caught on fire. And it was a large enough blaze in the bucket that they thought that it was a good procession to call the fire department. So the fire department came in and the fire wasn't really as much as the problem as was the smoke and the kitchen was completely engulfed and the dinning area had quite a large amount of smoke in it.”

Following the fire a statement was released immediately to the students concerning the event and the precautions the university was taking. The cafeteria was shut down from Sunday night until the following evening of Monday. During the time of the shut down meal services were moved to the second floor of the Union.

"There was not damage to the equipment,” said Hafner. “It was just the fact that there was quite a bit of smoke means that it is going to have to be completely cleaned before we are allowed to use any of that equipment. We have already started the prosecute obviously we are going to have it done professionally so we make sure that we pass inspection."

Following a second inspection and approval, the kitchen will be fully operational again. The university expects the repairs to be done by the middle of next week. William Penn students were able to resume normal meals in the cafeteria thanks to the quick response of university security and local first responders.